Disaster center establishment should be prioritized — Angara 10/18/2010

Disaster center establishment should be prioritized — Angara

10/18/2010
As the northern part of the country is threatened by super typhoon “Juan,” Sen. Edgardo Angara yesterday said the establishment of the Disaster Science Management Center (DSMC) should be a national priority to better prepare the nation for dealing with similar disasters.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), Juan is still strengthening and could bring rains like “Ondoy” and winds like “Basyang.”

“We need the DSMC to help us prepare for the typhoons and similar disasters that will continue to threaten the country. The government needs to be able to understand how to develop an advanced and real-time information disse-mination strategy so people can better prepare to handle such events,” the lawmaker, in a statement, said.

He added that “we need to adopt a pro-active approach in order to properly address this problem. A scientific approach supported by extensive research has already led me to appropriate P100 million from the budget for the establishment of a Philippine Disaster Science Center, roughly P40 million of which is allocated for a proposed Disaster Science Management Center.”.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101018hed2.html